Peer coaching and
mentoring to improve
teaching and learning

The 2004-07 action research project atNewham Sixth Form College (known as‘NewVIc’) in Plaistow, east London, exploredthe ways in which mutual planning,observation and reflective dialogue canenable practitioners to innovate and todevelop new creative routines and strategiesto increase the success of teaching andlearning.‘Action research’ is a general term used todescribe practice-based inquiry, usually of avery practical nature. It seeks to investigatepractice in order to change, improve orbetter understand. It is often reflective innature and asks ‘what works?’, ‘why does itwork?’ and ‘how do we know it works?’A research-team of five practitionerresearcherswas set up in order to support awider group ofcolleagues on avoluntary basis inexperimentingwith new ideas.Practitioners andthe internalresearch team worked together with the aimof enabling dialogue across facultyboundaries. The practitioners were drawnfrom various specialisms, but the focus wason generic, transferable skills andknowledge. A key principle of the supporton offer was the transferable nature of goodpractice. Practitioner-researchers workedwith 51 participants in year one, and 45participants in year two.The project was awarded a ‘highlycommended’ Beacon Award at the AoCConference in 2007.

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Related outputs

Murray, J., Czerniawski, G. and Kidd, W. 2017. The Impact of Alternative Routes on the Work and Identities of Teacher Educators: The English Case. in: Feiman-Nemser, Sharon and Ben-Peretz, Miriam (ed.) Getting the Teachers We Need: International Perspectives on Teacher Education London Rowman & Littlefield.

Kidd, W. 2016. Troubled Craft and Novice Teachers: An Ethnographic Account of Emerging Professional Identities of Novice Teachers in the English Lifelong Learning Sector. Prof Doc Thesis University of East London Cass School of Education and Communities

Kidd, W. 2013. The times they are a-changing: some thoughts on the historical and contemporary tensions in Initial Teacher Education for the lifelong learning sector in the UK at this pivotal moment in time. Research in Teacher Education. 3 (2), pp. 15-21.